The door closed as the craft rose into the air. "So, miss Claw." He said, sitting opposite her in the cabin – they were the only two there. "Fuse really thinks you're going to be the downfall of his operation here. That's pretty impressive. What'd you do to deserve THAT honor?" he asked.
"I was part of Dexter's original time-travel experiments. The one that crashed back in two thousand nine?"
"I remember that. Half of our town lost power because of that explosion."
"That bad, huh?" she asked, absentmindedly, not really expecting much less wanting a response. "Well, I was sent to twenty twelve. End of the world thing. Ironic, no? A few of the geniuses back there helped me finish the secondary time machine that Dexter had started, and brought me back here. Fuse must have caught wind of that, or else he wouldn't care one way or the other."
"But what I don't get is why that's so important to him." Ben leaned back with his hands behind his head.
"I don't, either, but it must be pretty serious for him to actually care."
"You don't know the half of it."
"So, where is this off world plaza?" she asked.
"Not too far from here, really. Not by S.C.A.M.P.E.R. at least. You'll like it. And while we're there, you can meet my cousin Gwen." He said with a smile.
"Sounds pleasant," she said grimly, looking out the window, down at the ground they were flying over, which had been reduced to nothing short of a small sea of green matter.
"This is one of the infected zones. That's what Dex called them. Like the whole planet isn't infected."
"Not yet." Cael whispered, remembering the broken future of the planet she called home.
An uncomfortable silence trailed.
"Please tell me that there's some good news come from the future. Not to offend or anything, but all I've heard since you got here was how bad off we'll be in a few years."
"None taken," she said, lightly. "Good news? I don't really know… there wasn't much. There's not a soldier who'd give up before giving their life, I suppose that's a good thing for us. The Utonium sisters were leading a lot of the battles, except for the girl with the short black hair, Buttercup? She was manning stations in Sector V."
Ben's face lit up. "Buttercup?" he asked excitedly, "They found her?"
"What do you mean?"
"Nobody's seen her for a good three, four months. She's alright?"
"Well, she must be. She was there in the future."
"Arriving at destination," a voice came over the intercom connecting the cockpit and the cabin. "Will you be requiring further assistance at the Off World Plaza?
"No thanks, chief. I've got it covered." Ben said to the intercom as the ship bumped slightly upon landing, the cabin door opening.
He jumped out and extended a hand to Cael to help her out of the vehicle. She was so transfixed on the scene that unfolded in front of her that she was glad that Ben had offered his help, for she nearly fell out of the van. He caught her, rather surprised. Ben hadn't thought she'd actually need help getting out, he was only trying to be polite.
But the Off World Plaza was one of the busiest stations Cael had seen yet. People were scurrying all over the place, welders and construction workers and scientists of all sorts. A group of children was carrying a set of heavy wiring and piping towards a warehouse to their left.
In the center of all the commotion was a water fountain, beautifully carved out of what looked like white marble with steps leading up to it. Had everyone's lives not been in danger, Cael probably would have stopped to admire it, but they hadn't the time. Set behind the gorgeous fountain was the massive structure of a Shuttle Docking Station. In retrospect, that really should have been what Cael gaped at while Ben dragged her through the small industrial town. Every so often, they would have to stop as Ben conferred with some man in a hardhat or another. He would give them a curt nod and spare a word or two, but told them it really was important they get going.
Ben led her through the crowded streets. The looming structure grew larger as they approached it. He dragged her up a number of flights of stairs, so that, at some point, she couldn't feel her legs.
"Ben. What the heck? I've counted forty eight flights already. And I wasn't counting the first ten minutes."
Ben stopped short, and Cael was afraid she'd upset him somehow. But after fishing around in his coat pocket for a moment, he pulled out a small silver key with a green tag on it.
She looked from the key to the door, relieved. "Is this it?"
"Yep." Ben said sharply, jiggling the key in the lock for a second before they were allowed in. The room was dark, and Cael's eyes had to adjust for a moment to tell her that the room was actually not the storage closet it seemed from the outside. There was a small passageway as they entered, but it extended much further than it should have, eventually opening up to a triangular room, the walls of which were completely covered in machinery; computers, monitors, speakers, modems of all sizes, and even a few things that Cael could not recognize. The entire room was bathed in a deep purple light from the glow of the screens. From the back of the room, the two could hear a small, nasal voice coming form one of the transmitters.
"Goodbye, Gwen Tennyson. Give your grandmother my regards!"
"Gwen? You in here?" Ben called around some of the machinery that was blocking their way. The two had to navigate carefully, sidestepping all sorts of equipment, and occasionally having to move flush against the wall the proceed, so cramped was the small room.
"Where are we?" Cael whispered to Ben.
"We're in one of the wings of the Shuttle. Hollowed out and attached to the building. Gwen? Hey, Gwen!"
"What is it, Ben?" came a female voice from behind more machinery. "You know you shouldn't just burst in here like that."
"Sorry, Gwen, but time's a wasting."
"You know the Martians don't like contact with just anyone. Even the great Ben Ten."
"Who was that?" the boy asked, leaning over his cousin's shoulder as the finally reached her.
"A friend, Marvin. He's been keeping tabs on all interplanetary communications for me since the war began; he patched me through to an old friend of yours, Ben: Vilgax."
"Good to know ole' octopus face is getting pulled into the fray." The boy said with a satisfied air about him.
"Yeah, but he's been more of a help than you might think. He recently told me that there was some sort of energy disturbance just before Planet Fusion arrived. It threw off his whole ship; he thinks it might have been a worm hole, like the ones Dexlabs made in the suburban areas on Earth. Only the energy field on this one was massive. I think that's how Planet Fusion got into our solar system."
"Yeah, okay. But I have Cael Claw with me." As if to one up his cousin, he gestured grandly to the girl behind him, who had taken in Gwen's report with a grim countenance.
"How long," Cael coughed, "Before Planet Fusion arrived?"
Gwen, who was neither phased nor impressed by her cousin's surprise, shuffled through some data. "Uhm… They said it seemed to have been there for around a month before there was any activity going through it. The only thing is, no one can figure out what caused it to open. Dexter and Mandark opened the wormholes on Earth, but I don't think it'd be possible for them to open one that big." Gwen said. "Oh! Ben, before I forget. Providence wants you. They said they had more information about anomaly number 622. Sounds urgent."
"Yeah, not as urgent as you think. They can gather all the information they want, none of it's useful."
"You should check it out anyway. Besides, you can introduce them to Cael. Maybe they'll be more impressed than I was."
"I wasn't trying to impress you." Ben protested. Gwen stopped her typing for a moment to look back at her cousin. "Okay, so, maybe a little…"
"You can take the car." Gwen offered, tossing the keys over her shoulder. "I think I'll be here for a while. At this rate, I should have all of the information decrypted in about thirty eight hours."
"Thirty eight hours. Gotcha. Come on, Claw. Guess we're going to Providence." He muttered as he ushered Cael back out of the narrow room.
"You know," she said, as they neared completion of the descent of the impossible staircase. "I've noticed that my 'saving the world' is just a lot of running around."
Ben laughed as they trudged down the staircase. "That's all any of us have been doing for the last year." He said. "Defense is our main goal, at the moment. Until Dexlabs can develop the gear we need to actually put a dent in Fuse's forces, it's really all we can do.
From somewhere outside of the stairwell, there was a dangerous bang! and distant screams.
Cael grabbed hold of the railing for support as the whole structure shook. Ben had transformed into Jetray and swooped over her head and down the last two and a half flights of steps. She leaned over the railing and looked at the distance to the ground floor. Ben was already out the door, which was now lying on the ground. Cael took a deep breath and jumped the railing, landing moderately gracefully on the concrete underneath her, tumbling to a stop. At least she didn't break any bones. Collecting herself quickly, she darted out the exit in pursuit of Ben. When she broke out into the streets, she realized how hopeless her cause was – people were scrambled on the plaza, all running in a million different directions trying to sort out the problem. But what WAS the problem? There was another rumbling explosion and Cael spun on the spot to see a small team of Sawbreakers on the beams supporting the shuttle. Ben was up there already, taking them out one at a time, but not before they had done a considerable amount of damage to the small civilization of the Off World Plaza Spaceport below.
Cael gasped and looked up. There was one directly above her, sawing through one of the metal structures that served as a catwalk for crew. Just opposite her, a small boy stood, trying to collect a bundle of blueprints that one of the older soldiers had requested. Her eyes darted between the boy and the beam, which was holding on to the rest of the structure by a hair's breadth.
Not thinking clearly, Cael sprinted forward, her feet pounding the ground to cover the distance between her and the boy as fast as possible. The beam began to fall…
She closed her eyes at the last second, feeling her arms wrap around the boy's middle. Her feet didn't stop, she just kept going, trying to clear the beam's impact zone. The blueprints were scattered everywhere.
There was an otherworldly shriek as Ben finished off the last of the Sawbreaker team, the one who had cut through the beam, which had just hit the ground with a terrible crunch. Dust flew up around it, along with bits of the stone walk it had crashed in to.
Cael opened her eyes, and saw through the dust that she was staring directly at the young boy. She figured he couldn't be more than ten. His eyes were wretched shut and he was trembling slightly. Several people ran forward once the dust cleared to help the two up, make sure no one was hurt. Shouts of "Oh my god!" and "Are you alright?" surrounded them. But once they had been hauled out of the dirt, Cael coughed once and smiled at the young boy.
"Hey, I'm Cael. You okay, bud?" she asked.
He looked sorrowfully at the papers that were torn and battered under the beam. "Yeah, I'm okay." He said, flatly, as one of the older soldiers led him off to a Medbot.
Ben came up behind Cael. "You okay?" he asked.
Cael nodded stiffly, swallowing. "Who was that kid?" she asked, quietly.
Ben looked at the boy across the courtyard as a blue Dexlabs Medbot checked him for injuries. "That's uhm… I think his name's Son."